Wanted Once Again
by Gypsy Druid
Summary: Foxx's dedication to the Code of the Fraternity earns her a second chance. Buffy makes a new friend and accepts a new duty.
1. Prologue

**Wanted Once Again**

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing. I own no one. I'm not even making money on the plot. So, to put it plainly, suing me would be pointless.

**Rating:** R/NC-17

**Pairing:** Buffy/Foxx, possibly Faith/Willow

**Summary:** Foxx's dedication to the Code of the Fraternity earns her a second chance. Buffy makes a new friend and accepts a new duty.

**A/N:** Picks up after Getting What You Asked For

Prologue

It had been two years since she'd left her sister and friends in LA. She'd told them that she was going out for a little while, gotten on the bike, and just ridden off. She had also found a substantial amount of cash in the saddlebags with her new identification. She hadn't used much of the money, though. She had always managed to find other means of housing and food. Apparently, people weren't as oblivious to what happened after dark as they were in Sunnydale.

She'd only made it a few miles out of California, looking for a place to sleep for the night, when her spidey sense began to literally scream at her. Turning her bike off the main road, she tracked the feeling until she found herself on a barely there beaten path into some woods. A few minutes later, she found what she was looking for. A gaping hole in the ground, and several demons sitting around it, chanting in what she recognized as Sumerian. A few feet away, a man was chained between two trees, struggling to get free.

"Hey, is this a private get together, or can just anybody join in?" Buffy called out, pulling the Scythe from sheath at her back. After they had arrived in LA, they had discovered that humans who chose not to see the supernatural world around them, could not see the Scythe either.

She didn't wait for an answer as she ran down the incline and, with two quick swipes, cut through the chains to free the captive. Several of the demons stopped chanting and threw themselves at her. The fight hadn't lasted very long, and when all the demons were dead, the hole sealed itself and the man that she had rescued offered her food and a bed for the night at his home on the other side of the small forest.

After that, she'd traveled across the country, seeing the sights and taking out nests of vampires and cadres of demons along the way. A lot of the people that she rescued offered her meals to take with her, or a place to sleep for the night if she needed it. She'd even found one nice witch that had permanently changed her hair color to the lighter blonde that she'd always preferred.

Now, two years later, she was somewhat settling in the sunshine state of orange juice and bikini winters. She had sent Faith her new cell number after she'd decided that she was tired of using the disposable ones and got one of those nifty pay-as-you-go plans. A little tinkering and she had all the features of the phone unlocked. They had become close over the last couple of years, despite the distance. Faith had even flown out to wherever she was to give her a hand on some of her 'bigger' slaying missions. Not for the first time, Buffy wished things had gone differently the first time with Faith. She had also been making tentative contact with the other Scoobies in the last six months. Two years had put patches on the wounds left behind from their mutiny that night.

She had taken a job as a bounty hunter. Something she could make a lot of money at, while making her own hours, so it didn't effect her slaying activities. She relished in some of the more dangerous jobs she received after proving her worth, and amazed her 'colleagues' with her ability to track and take down some of the more elusive and dangerous prey.

Suddenly, a shadow fell across her as someone blocked her sun. "Buffy Summers?"

Weeks of ignoring her sister and 'friends' quelled her surprise as she ignored the stranger for a moment, then shaded her eyes to look up at him to see him looking down at her. "Oh, uh, I think you've got me mixed up with someone else." She said blankly. "You wanna get out of my sun?"

Ignoring her denial, the man moved to her other side and squatted down. "You are a difficult woman to locate, Ms. Summers."

Buffy nearly growled, her muscles tensing slightly. "Look, pal. I don't know you, and you don't know me, so back off."

"Please, Ms. Summers, just a moment of your time."

"Look, jackass," Buffy snarled. She wasn't giving this 'person' any chances. Something about him was setting off her spidey scene, and she didn't want to know what it was. "I think I've already told you that you've got the wrong person. Now, you either back off, or I start yelling rape. Clear?"

Inclining his head slightly in resignation, the man finally backed away and left. She tried to relax again, but couldn't calm her mind, knowing that something had tracked her down for some strange reason. Why couldn't they just leave me the fuck alone, she snarled to herself. Throwing her stuff together, she stormed back to the beach house that she had rented. She threw her stuff on the sofa, pacing restlessly, feeling caged all of a sudden. Then, between one turn and the next, she was across the room, pinning a body to the wall by its neck.

"Well, nice to see you too, kid." Her captive managed to strangle out.

"Whatever you're doing here, take it to the others, Whistler." Buffy ground out, her grip around his throat tightening reflexively in her agitation. "I'm on a much needed and very lengthy vacation."

"It's not like that, Slayer." Whistler gasped, starting to get worried. She'd never been this strong before. "I've been sent to congratulate you on a job well done. The Powers are pleased."

Buffy let him go and stalked away, and dropped onto the couch. "Good for them."

Whistler looked at her sadly and she lay her head back and draped an arm over her eyes. He could clearly see just how tired her soul really was. He knew that, a few years ago, the news that he was about to impart would have been her wish come true, but now he doubted she even cared anymore. He wondered how she'd managed to fool even the boy who always 'saw' too much.

"The Powers want you to know that you're free, kid." Whistler finally continued. "The fate of the world doesn't rest on your shoulders anymore. Now, its all on Faith and the others. If you live long enough, there will be one or two more prophecies concerning you, but nothing apocalyptic or anything like that."

As he finished speaking, Buffy suddenly stiffened before jumping to her feet, the Scythe magically in her hands.

"Tell her the whole of it, Voice of the Powers." The man from the beach stepped out of the shadows of the corner furthest from the already agitated Slayer. "She has been free of you since her sacrifice for her loved one. You are merely just now telling her."

"Who are you?" Buffy demanded. Then his words filtered and she froze. The Balance Demon gulped as she turned back to him with an enraged, feral light turned her hazel eyes an odd dark golden color. "_Whistler._"

"Now, hold on there, Slayer." Whistler said immediately, taking a few steps back so that, if she suddenly lunged at him, he'd have at least a half-second's warning. He could be gone with that much of a warning. He hoped. "Let's not do something that I'd regret." He held his hands up in a conciliatory gesture. "We kept mum because it worked in everyone's favor. You needed something to focus on while you re-acclimated to being alive, and the Powers could always use someone with your track record."

"You shouldn't have let it happen in the first place!" Buffy cried furiously.

"Do you really think that we did?" Whistler said incredulously. "No one thought that the ritual would actually work! There should have been no way to pull your soul out of Heaven, especially for such a novice."

Buffy sat down abruptly, pressing her fingers to her temples in effort to calm down. She had never handled emotional turmoil well, and it just seemed to get worse each year since she was Called. Once again, she silently wished that she could go back to simply being the clueless cheerleader she used to be. She was, however, not foolish enough to wish it out loud. No telling what would happen if it actually got granted.

"So, now what?" She asked tiredly.

"That's up to you, Kid." Whistler said softly. "Your destiny is fulfilled and you survived it, in a roundabout way. Your life is your own, now. You've more than earned it."

Buffy nodded at him, then turned to the stranger. "Still haven't told me who or what you are. I know you're not human, but you don't feel like a demon either."

"You are correct. I am not human, or demon, or anything, really." The figure smiled. "I am an Emissary, of sorts. I exist only long enough to achieve my goal."

"What goal?" Buffy asked, curious despite herself. "Who's Emissary?"

"In another dimension, one where magic holds very little sway, Order is maintained by humans with 'superior' abilities. Usually in the form of assassins. One such group became corrupted, but we did not know that the man responsible was currently in control of the Organization when we sent his name down the Loom."

"What's the Loom?" She asked.

"It is the way that Fate communicated with her Weapons." The Emissary told her. "Fate sends the name of the target down to the Loom, the Reader interprets, and the Weapons remove the danger."

"That's not right!" Buffy exclaimed. After spending her entire life defending mankind, what they did was abhorrent to her. "What if that person doesn't even know that they're going to do something? What if they decide that they don't want to do it after all. You don't have the right!"

"The name reaches the Loom only when the person in question commits to the path that they have taken." The Emissary assured her. "Believe that this is not something taken lightly. Every life is precious, but there are times when one must be sacrificed for the sake of the many. The lives that we take are for the Fate of the whole. One mission could save the doctor destined to cure cancer, or take out the person who causes the next World War."

Buffy sat back, the enormity of what the Emissary was saying dawning on her. These people were killers, but they were doing it for the same reason that she slayed. Who was she, really, to condemn? It wasn't her dimension, and she didn't really know how things worked.

"What does any of this have to do with me?" She finally asked again. "You have to know that I wouldn't do anything like that. I've been fighting for humans too long to suddenly begin killing them."

"As I said previously, one of our Organizations, the Fraternity, was corrupted when one of the Readers decided to 'create' his own names, ordering hits for his own material gain, and hiding them within the names truly of the Loom. Unfortunately, as he was the interpreter at the time when his name was sent down, he did not pass along the order. Instead, he hid the weave and went about his 'business'. Another of our Weapons discovered his treachery and attempted to restore order, but the Betrayer used the man's own blood-kin to track him down and kill him with treachery and lies. Wesley Gibson then discovered what his father had, and finished the mission his father began. But the Betrayer was prepared. He had 'created' kill orders for every member of the Fraternity, knowing that for most, their own lives meant more to them than the Code that they followed. Only one, Foxx, kept to the Code of the Fraternity. Not knowing that the orders were false, she killed every member with a kill order, including herself."

Buffy's mouth fell open, but she kept quiet and simply listened.

"As a reward for her dedication, we wish to bring her here, so that she may live again. Her entire life has been the Fraternity, and she truly knows no other way to live."

"What am I supposed to do with her?" Buffy asked, confused.

"Do what you are doing now." The Emissary suggested. "Hunt demons. Collect your bounties. Foxx relishes in the Hunt and the Kill as much as any Slayer, and with her enhanced skills, she will be able to keep up with you with little difficulty. She will merely have to accustom herself to different targets."

Buffy's gaze turned thoughtful at the mention of collecting bounties. If this woman was as good as the Emissary hinted at, they could probably go for those really high bounties. The kind that no one, not even her, was foolish enough to go after without adequate backup. She would have taken them without hesitation if Faith had been with her, or even Willow and Xander, but definitely not by herself. She'd already made quite a nest egg with the ones she'd already taken. With no real bills to pay, it was mostly just sitting in the bank collecting interest.

"What do you get out of this?" Buffy asked cautiously.

"Nothing." The Emissary answered. "This is a reward for a life extinguished too soon due to treachery. Nothing more. We merely can not bring her back into our dimension because the Universal Laws prohibit it."

Now, Whistler spoke again. "The Powers would also like to make a request."

Buffy's eyes nearly popped out of her head at that. The Powers... make a request?

Whistler shrugged at her look. "You're off the payroll, remember."

Her snort interrupted him. "Payroll? I didn't even get paid by the Council."

"Anyway..." He cut in quickly. "To balance out the sudden activation of all the current Potentials into full Slayers, the Powers and the Partners made a deal."

"Hold up, who are the Partners?" Buffy asked.

"The Partners are the opposite of the Powers. They're the Bad Guys to our Good Guys. The agreement they came to was that no more Potentials would be activated but the ones already born. You're old friends have done a surprising good job locating and training them. There are now 150 Slayers around the world, that number will remain constant, unless someone else manages to alter the Line. Believe me, we're fervently hoping no one else gets that ambitious. There will be no more, splitting of the power. If one dies and is revived like you were, that person's Slayer power will pass to the next in Line, and she'll go back to being an ordinary girl."

"So, what did these...Partners get out of the deal?"

"A few powerful demons will be released." Whistler held up his hand to stop her coming argument. "It was either agree to those few now, or take a chance on whatever happens while the Balance resettles. Trust me, this is the lesser of two evils. The newbie Slayers aren't as powerful as you and the Dark Slayer, so let them handle the usual stuff while the two of you, or rather three now, take care of these new threats. We're giving you a heads up because we would like for you to begin to track them down and take them out as soon as possible."

"Damn it, Whistler."

"I'm sorry, kid, but this is the way it's gotta be. 'Sides, you're gonna get bored with the run-of-the-mills soon anyways."

"Now what are you talking about?"

"You were right on track about your power. The spell did give you and Faith a serious boost. On top of that, Slayers are meant to evolve, to grow stronger as they age. You have been a Slayer for nearly a decade, and she's been one for almost as long. In addition to that, each time you were pushed to your limit, you tapped even further into your power. The Spell has completely opened the wellspring of power that had been seeping into your beings slowly over the years. Soon, the hybrid demons on Earth aren't going to be much of a challenge to either of you."

"If they're going to be that strong, how is this woman going to be able to cope?"

"Foxx will be much more equipped to adapt better than your young friends were when they were thrust into your world." Whistler answered. "She will not have the strength or the senses of a Slayer, but her speed, battle instincts and reaction time will be more than adequate. At their request, we're going to give her a little boost to her own natural healing abilities. Nothing on the level of your healing, but she'll heal about as fast as the average Slayer. She's also better trained than anyone you'll ever meet outside of military Special Ops. You should consider taking advantage of that."

Buffy gave the matter, both sides, her complete attention. She considered every possible angle that she could think of, knowing that one or possibly both, were going to throw in things that she wouldn't be able to conceive of, and asked them question after question. The sun was beginning to set when she finally made her decision.

"Fine." Buffy nodded. "I accept both offers. Now both of you can get out. You've already ruined my day. You're not ruining my night as well."

She was heading for the stairs when she suddenly turned back. "Whistler, would they have told me?" Buffy asked the balance demon. He looked at her questioningly. "If this Emissary hadn't needed my help with this woman, would the Powers have let me go? Please tell me the truth."

"I don't know, kid." Whistler admitted. "They only tell me what I need to know at any given assignment."

"I don't think they would have." She said sadly, turning again but not ascending the steps. "I think they would have used me until I died again. That sounds more like something they'd do."

Whistler watched with a worried expression as she disappeared up the stairs. Although he'd never admit it to anyone, he was glad that Fate had intervened on her behalf because, if he was completely honest with himself, he didn't think so either.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Buffy glanced up momentarily as the woman on the bed suddenly jackknifed into a sitting position with a hard gasp. She returned her attention to the file in her lap, even as the woman felt at her back for the custom hardware that was no longer there. She'd read through the night and now, with the sunlight shining brightly through the windows, she was ready for some coffee.

"Your guns are on the table beside the bed." She said quietly. "I've got the clips, though."

Foxx twisted into a fighting position the moment she heard the strange voice. The last thing she remembered was shooting the curve shot and watching her bullet kill her friends before coming right at her. She should be dead.

"Who are you?" Foxx growled, scrambling to get her bearings. "Where am I?"

"Buffy. Florida." The Slayer smiled slightly and stood. "Let your senses settle and adjust. Catch your breath. When you're ready, come on down and I'll explain what's happened to you."

The first thing that Foxx noticed as the slight blonde moved calmly towards the door, was that she had left the clips to her guns in the chair that she had just vacated. Next to the clips, was the thick file folder that she had been reading through. Moving quickly, she scooped up her guns, then went for the clips. She was about to return to the bed, when she noticed a page sticking out of the folder. It had her picture on it.

Cautiously, she flipped open the folder. It was a file on her as a Fraternity member. She skimmed through it quickly. All of her kills were listed there. Her training regime. Her skills and abilities.

"What the fuck is going on?" She muttered to herself.

Stretching out her senses, she felt that it was just her and the strange blonde. She could smell the ocean and hear people going about their business outside. Moving back to the bed, she quickly broke down her weapons to check them over thoroughly before putting them back together in quick, efficient movements, even a little surprised to find that the woman had left a bullet in both of the chambers. Somehow, she knew that they hadn't been left there by mistake. Nothing had been sabotaged. None of the bullets had been tampered with. She reloaded the guns and slid them into their holsters at her back, instantly feeling infinitely more comfortable. Finally, she took a look around the room that she was in.

She focused her senses again. No vibrations in the air. That meant no hidden surveillance equipment like mics. She still wasn't sure about cameras, but somehow, she doubted it. Too much a professional to be trusting, she edged carefully out into the hall. She moved soundlessly, studying her surrounding along the way, and made her way silently down the stairs. Even still, she nearly jumped out of her skin when the woman, Buffy, suddenly spoke from another room.

"I can't cook," she said, "so if you want something to eat, you're going to have to fix it yourself, or we'll have to go out, but there is coffee made and juice in the fridge."

Foxx found the woman in the kitchen nursing her own cup of fragrant coffee. Standing in the entryway, she studied the other woman for a moment. She was petite, but there was a definable muscle tone in her slender arms and legs. There was a long gash along the curve of her collarbone, and she could see a visibly fading bruise along the woman's ribcage, disappearing up into the halter and down into the leather pants. There were also various other scratches and smaller discolorations. She looked like she'd just gone a few rounds with the Repairman. As she stared, she watched in near amazement as the smaller cuts faded and disappeared before her eyes.

"We can stay here and talk, or we can go out and talk." The woman, Buffy, she said her name us, told her, looking her squarely in the eyes. "But there's one thing you need to know now."

"And that is?" Foxx finally spoke.

"In this dimension, your Fraternity doesn't exist. In any way, shape or form."

~~~ BtVS ~~ Wanted ~~~

Buffy watched curiously as Foxx processed the bombshell that she'd just dropped on her. She'd had a good hunt last night, taking out a couple of Fernak demons. Slender and lithe where most demons were bulky, Fernak demons relied on their lightning speed instead of brute strength. The trio had given her a real challenge, and one had even managed to escape. She had intended on hitting a couple of the nightclubs, but something told her to go back home.

She found the lush bodied woman in the guest room. She was dressed like Faith, but even unconscious, this woman was much hotter. Buffy had felt her body respond predictably, but pushed the feelings away. Just her luck, she figured. She'd had a hard enough time resisting Faith. She had a feeling that when awake and aware, the woman probably redefined sex appeal. The first thing she did was remove the clips from the guns lying next to the woman. She left the chambered bullets alone. If they somehow ended up getting attacked, those first shots would give Buffy enough time to toss her the full clips.

She figured, after the initial shock and disbelief was out of the way, she'd take Foxx to the local demon bar for proof after dark. Until then, they'd spend the day getting the woman situated. Take her shopping for some clothes, get her a new ride, stuff like that. According to the file that had been left with her, a small fraction of her accumulated wealth had been transferred along with her in the form of old unmatured bearer bonds, tax free since they were pre-1950. Buffy's eyes had nearly fallen out of her head when she saw that the 'small fraction' had eight digits attached to it _before _it got around to a decimal point, and that was without the accumulated interest.

"What do you mean, no Fraternity?" Foxx asked incredulously. "That's impossible. There's always been a Fraternity."

"Not here, there isn't." Buffy said gently. This was a dangerous woman on a good day. Ruffling her feathers wouldn't be particularly wise since she'd given her bullets back. She kept her eyes on Foxx's hand, which were already to close to her back and twitching. "You died in your world, remember?" Foxx nodded warily. "You weren't supposed to. Your boss faked the kill orders, just like he faked the ones that got his name put on the Loom in the first place."

"I don't understand." Foxx said, her normally confident voice unsteady in a way that it hadn't been since before she'd been recruited.

"Think it through, Foxx. The names in the Loom are people who _willingly_ do things that cause the deaths of people who need to live. You and the others were only taking out the people that you were ordered to by your boss, because he was the Interpreter, but how could you have known that he was putting his own names in with the others to line his own pockets? It was only his name that came down, but he made the others as an 'insurance policy', of sorts. He knew that someday, someone would figure it out, and he planned accordingly."

Foxx dropped into a chair opposite of Buffy. She could see the truth in the other woman's eyes. She had died for nothing, had killed her friends, her family, for nothing. Buffy gave her a few minutes before continuing.

"Because you believed in the Code enough to do what you did, your Fate has given you another chance." Buffy told her. "You couldn't be brought back in your own dimension, because of Laws that you'd really have no way of knowing about, but here, those Laws are different. Here, magic exists, demons and monsters, not just the human kind, really exist, and coming back from the dead is not only possible, but an accepted occurrence for certain kinds of people. I just happened to be one of those types of people." She saw the blatant disbelief on Foxx's face. "Don't worry. I plan to prove it to you."

"Then who or what are you supposed to be?"

Buffy smirked. "I'm the thing that the demons and the monsters are scared of. A petite, blonde, former California cheerleader, with the strength and speed and skills to fight them on their own level."

Foxx couldn't help but smirk back. She'd often been underestimated in her skills as an assassin because she was a beautiful woman, despite the fact that her track record clearly put her in the upper echelons of the Fraternity ranks. To date, her only miss had been Wesley, and she believed that that had been due to luck and the fact he had been trained by the best that the Fraternity offered, herself included, to take down one of the absolute best that the Fraternity ever produced. His father.

"He finished it." She suddenly heard Buffy say. "The Emissary that brought you here wanted me to pass that along. Wesley finished the job. Said to tell you that he took out Sloan the same way his dad took out the guy that you all used to bring Wesley in. I figured that you'd know what that meant."

"Ironic." Foxx commented dryly. That just proved Wesley's innate talent despite the training. There weren't too many that could make that kind of shot, especially a rookie. "So, what's your story? Why am I here with you?"

"This is my dimension. Fate guides this dimension, like it does all dimensions, but Destiny protects it and, for a lack of a better term, I've been Destiny's bitch for most of my life." Buffy's tone was sardonic and deeply self-mocking. "I just recently became a free agent of sorts, and they figured that I was the best suited to be your quote unquote 'guide', since I'm in a position to give you something to do with those impressive skills that you've got, that don't involve the government, since I figure you'd have a bigger problem with authority than my kind does."

Buffy finished her coffee in silence, letting Foxx think whatever she was thinking. Finally, she got bored. "C'mon, let's go get you situated. I've got enough money to get you some clothes and a new ride until we can get to your money. If you don't mind, I'd rather wait until we can get back to the Council to get to your money. It'll be a lot less hassle."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

As the day progressed, Foxx grudgingly decided that she liked this little blonde. She wondered at the woman's training, because Foxx could tell that she was completely aware of her surroundings and the people around them, even though she gave no indication of it. Foxx had seen her eyes zero in on every door and security guard, both visible and, in some stores, plain clothed, as she flitted around like a stereotypical airhead blonde, the type that usually had Foxx reaching for her guns.

"I've been constantly on the move until about six months ago, so I'm still pretty much been living out of my duffel bag." Buffy told her as they made their way to the nearby shopping mall. "I had planned to stay here for a while, but it looks like I'm going to hitting the road again sometime soon."

"I was a professional assassin, Buffy." Foxx said. "I can survive just fine with a car and a suitcase."

"So, we'll get you some clothes, then head to the car dealership?"

"Works for me." Foxx nodded. "I'm going to need someplace to practice. I need to know if this place has affected my shooting. Just need an abandoned warehouse or something. Preferably out of the way, where people aren't going to hear the gunshots and call the police."

"I have to make a call later, so I'll see what we can come up with." Buffy assured her. "Besides, you're going to need to be trained on some more 'effective' weapons. The types of creatures that we're going to be going after, don't respond well to bullets. Usually just pisses them off."

They finished their shopping quickly, even Buffy, although she did spend an overly abundant amount of time finding the _perfect_ pair of calf-high boots to go with the outfit she'd just bought to go clubbing after the night's patrol. Tomorrow, she planned to call Faith and let her know what Whistler had gotten them into, and to begin 'reintegrating' herself into the new Council.

If they were going after the demons that Whistler warned her about, she was going to need the resources that the Council had at their disposal. Faith had kept her up-to-date on their progress, and she knew that an Academy had been established on top of the Cleveland Hellmouth, but the new Council, now commonly referred to as SWWI (Slayers, Witches and Watchers, Int'l), was still headquartered in London. Giles had returned to England to rebuild, and Willow had returned to the Coven for help in controlling the newly reopened wellspring of power from the spell that had activated the Potentials. Kennedy, of course, had gone with her lover. Faith did the patrolling while the Sunnydale survivors got the Academy up and running, using the council funds to purchase an old rundown building and Xander's knowledge of construction along with the new Slayer's strength and stamina got the building up to shape in little time. Then, he and Anya were off gathering the activated Slayers around the world that had no idea what had just happened to them.

Faith had also told her that, despite how everything ended, Buffy had a seat on the High Council, along with a healthy bank account full of back pay, including some hefty apocalypse bonuses. Apparently, the old Council rewarded themselves for every apocalypse the Slayer managed to avert, as the listed 'wielders' of the weapon known as the Slayer. Needless to say, they had done _very_ well during the last few years.

The only ones that had been opposed to the idea had been Xander and Wood, and they had both been quickly shot down. Xander, because of her 'supposed' desertion, and Wood, because in his mind, she consorted with the enemy. He was still very bitter about her protection of Spike, regardless of the fact that it had been Spike's sacrifice that had ultimately sealed the Hellmouth. It had only gotten worse after they found out that he had somehow ended up with Angel in LA, first as a 'ghost', before Fred figured out how to make him corporeal again. Faith had admitted to her that, even though she liked the former high school principal, she was getting tired of his unrelenting hatred, no matter how justified. Spike was as redeemed as her and Angel, but the man just refused to see that.

"Come on, girl." Foxx growled, her patience run out. "If we stay here any longer, I'm gonna start shooting."

"Go ahead." Buffy shrugged, not taking her eyes off her all-too-serious study of how the boots looked molded to her calves.

Foxx sneered. "I'll aim for the Blahniks first, I swear it."

Buffy's head jerked up so fast, eyes wide and mouth open in horror, Foxx thought she might have broken her own neck. It was almost enough to make her smile. She wouldn't do it, of course. She was female enough, and well used to the good things in life enough, to truly appreciate a great pair of shoes, but she really, _really_ wanted out of the damn mall.

Damn her, she really was likable once you got past the cheerleader personality flaw, even if it was just a cover.

After finally leaving the mall, Buffy and Foxx made their way to one of the nearby car dealerships. After looking through her options, Foxx settled on a brand new 2005 Chevy Retro Camaro, with all the available amenities. She'd seen the motorcycle in the driveway of the house they were staying in, and when she asked, Buffy had admitted that she's wasn't the safest driver when it came to four wheels. Everyone always seemed to be moving too slow, but that Foxx could pick any car she wanted. The trunk had enough space to stuff a body inside if needed, so her still small load of stuff should pose no problem.

She was still a little wary about this being a whole other dimension, but all in all, she was _supposed_ to be dead, so she figured that anything was possible at this point.

~~~ BtVS ~~ Wanted ~~~

"Hey, Foxx, you ready?" Buffy called through the door later that night.

Foxx slid her last two clips of custom bullets into the side table draw, and replaced them with more standard bullets in her guns. They had made some inquiries and been put in contact with someone local that could keep her supplied in bullets until they headed out. She slipped them into the holsters and the small of her back and pulled her shirt down to cover them and opened the door.

"Where are we going?" She asked as she waited for the blonde to lock up the house.

"Bar a couple of blocks from here." Buffy answered. "I promised you some proof, remember?"

Foxx nodded and followed her companion into the cool night. Briefly, she wondered what was with the duffel bag currently slung across the smaller woman's back. The bag hung like it was empty even the she'd seen the other woman toss a couple of thing into it, and she thought that she'd seen Buffy speaking into it.

Foxx felt something off about the building the moment they reached the door. The bar was an unobtrusive little dive that under normal circumstances, she wouldn't have given a second glance, in an area that didn't see much in the way of traffic, neither the foot or motor variety. Buffy pushed open the door and strolled in like she owned the place, despite looking so utterly out of place that it was almost laughable.

The first thing Foxx noticed was the almost instantaneous change in the atmosphere. It went from the genial boisterousness usually found in bars to a wary cautiousness that Foxx would never have imagined possible outside of the jungle when a predator began circling a group of grazers.

The next thing she noticed was the scent, and not just the liquor. There was blood in this room, and a lot of it.

Finally, she took in the people. Or creatures. Or somethings. _What the fuck?_

"Slayer?" The bartender said warily as she approached the bar. "Can I get you something?"

"A Fernak demon got away from me last night, Manny." Buffy told him. "It's been harvesting the organs of children. Spread the word. I already took out the other two of the triad, and I want this one. Anyone trying to hide it or sneak it out of the city, dies along with it."

Before anyone could respond, Buffy threw her arm out to the side. Foxx didn't see what she'd thrown, but that fell secondary in her mind when a man that looked like he'd been trying to sneak out the back door, suddenly exploded into grey dust.

Foxx carefully kept her reaction limited to a narrowing of her eyes. A slight narrowing.

After leaving the bar with a few more warnings, Buffy took Foxx on a patrol around the immediate area. Like most cities, Florida had an admittedly heavy demon population, but less than a third were actually dangerous. Most were making their livings in businesses like nightclubs or various illegal underground activities. A few of the sexclubs were actually owned by Succubi or Incubi. Buffy bypassed the local cemetery. Unlike in Sunnydale, smart vampires didn't leave their Childer for people to find. Bodies were taken to morgues for things like identification and such, and by the time the fledgling rose, the morgue was usually locked down for the night, and the only blood they could get to would be packaged. There were a few cases where someone would be working late, but it wasn't often enough to take the chance. That tended to pose a few problems. One, packaged blood for their first meal screwed up the fledge's hunting instincts and two, the destruction of the refrigerated lockers tended to lead towards unwanted investigations. The same thing happened when the occasional security guard was caught unawares.

Instead, Buffy took them to one of the nearby warehouse districts, where strange noises from the large empty buildings went mostly unnoticed.

"Ready for your first lesson?" Buffy asked suddenly.

"What?" Foxx looked at her briefly. Something about the building in front of her was making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She had felt it when they'd entered the bar earlier, but she'd chalked it up to being overly wary in unfamiliar surroundings. Here, it was so much more intense.

"We're about to take out that nest in there." Buffy informed the former assassin. "That wigging feeling that your getting is a little something from the Fate guys that let you come here, to help you, ahh, fit in, so to speak. Basically, you're sensing the evil that in that building."

"Why didn't I feel it at the bar?" Foxx asked, not bothering with denial. "Weren't those demons there evil, too?"

"One of the most common misconceptions about demons is that all demons are evil." Buffy told her. "Most are just following their instincts. Unfortunately for them, those instincts usually involve killing innocents, and it's my job to protect the innocents. The really evil ones are the ones that we usually call the Big Bads. They're the ones that are either trying to enslave or kill all humankind, or open a Hellmouth, or something to that nature. You mostly feel most vampires and upper level demons. If a vamp manages to get past the fledgling stage, they tend to be sadistic little bastards that like to play with their food. Humans have the capacity for true evil too. Murders, rapists, telemarketers. You'll probably feel them too. If you decide that you absolutely _have_ to do something about them, don't tell me about it and don't get caught."

"You'd turn me in?" Foxx said, a little incredulously.

"Of course not," the slayer replied almost absently as she began pulling weapons out of the still empty looking duffel, "but I know of at least one law firm that uses the supernatural, which includes mind-readers and witches that can use magic to pull out the information that they want. Trust me, it's more effective than a gun to the temple. If I don't know, then I can't tell." She began handing things to Foxx. "Okay, these are stakes. The pointy end goes in the heart. I know that your first instinct is to go for the guns, but try to avoid it until we can get you some more effective ammo. Regular bullets just piss them off. If you truly feel you must, though, please, aim for the eyes, preferably both of them, but you still have to stake them."


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

They hit the nest hard and fast. Buffy didn't even bother with her usual greet and beat. Although she wanted to get Foxx introduced to the wonderful world of slaying, she also wanted to hunt down that Fernak demon before it decided to do something inconvenient, like skip town.

Foxx, preferring to fall back on what she was most comfortable with for this first battle, did take Buffy's advice, aiming her shots for the soft, vulnerable eyes of their otherwise 'really-hard-to-hurt' opponents. Without even realizing it, they fell into an almost instant cohesion as Foxx decided to use this opportunity for that target practice that she'd wanted to get in. Foxx shot out the eyes as Buffy swept in for the final blow, and soon the air was thick with swirling dust.

"Hold it right there, Slayer." A male voice suddenly rang out.

Buffy pulled the pointed end of her scythe out of a blinded vamp's chest and spun around as it burst into ashes. She set the scythe on her shoulder in an casually rested position. "What's the what, chuck?"

The vamp, most likely the leader, was standing behind Foxx with a hand wrapped around her throat. Buffy watched with interest as Foxx struggled, but she could tell from the look in the former assassin's eyes that her struggles were more to gauge her captor's strength, than any real sign of distress.

"Drop the axe, or I kill your pretty friend here."

"Kill her, and you'll be floating with the breeze before her body hits the floor." Buffy smirked. "I guess this puts us in a stalemate, huh?"

Before the vamp could respond, Foxx suddenly bent at the waist and flipped him over her head.

"Of course, that's taking into account that 'my pretty friend there' even needs my help." Buffy let Foxx fight the vampire one on one. She had learned over time that the best way to evaluate someone, either friend or foe, was to see them in action. She'd intervene if it looked like the vamp was going to win, but she wanted to see how much fine-tuning the professional killer would actually need.

Not a lot, as it turned out. Foxx obviously knew how to strike fast, strike hard, and keep moving. Her almost supernatural speed kept her out of the vampire's clutches, which just frustrated him into making further mistakes. Buffy let her amuse herself for a while before she advised, "You can't beat a vamp with pure strength like I can, Foxx. Just stake him and be done with it. We've got other things to do tonight."

As much as Foxx hated it, she was forced to admit that Buffy was right. She was in better than top physical peak, but she was getting winded, and as far as she could tell, her opponent was just getting pissed. She waited patiently for an opening, then palmed a stake from her waistband and struck in a lightning fast move that buried the sharpened wood into the vampire's chest before he could block her. The man in front of her burst into a cloud of grey dust and she choked when she inhaled some of it in a completely unintentional gasp.

"It's usually best to try to inhale just before you stake them, or try to turn you face away, to avoid that." Buffy told her. "You'll get used to it if you decide you want to hang with me."

Foxx finally got her lungs cleared, then turned to her companion, grinning almost manically. "Hell yes, I'm sticking with you. This was more fun than training Wesley to hunt Cross."

Buffy's breath nearly stopped as she was instantly drawn in by how the uninhibited reaction brought out the other woman's beauty. Her blood was still running hot from the night's fighting and she felt a throbbing start low in her belly. She forced the feelings down deep. The last female that she'd been attracted to had tried to destroy her and everyone that she loved. Unfortunately, her taste in men didn't tend to run much better. She always seemed to be attracted to people with homicidal impulse issues. Why should this one be any different?

Shaking away those thoughts, Buffy waited for Foxx to scoop up her gun, then they made their way back to the car. They did a drive around town, with Buffy stretching her senses as wide as she could, trying to track the last Fernak demon. She really, _really_ didn't want it escaping her. It was one thing for a demon to be randomly attacking innocent victims, but another for them to be targeting and gutting little kids. She knew that the cops were running themselves ragged trying to find the killers. She had seen the murders on the news as she was readying for patrol one night, around the time the fourth body was found, and lamenting on the fact that she couldn't hunt the human monsters, when she sensed the triad. Not even realizing what she was hunting, she stumbled upon them just as they were about to gut their fifth victim, alive and struggling as hard as she could. For the first time in a long time, she wished (not out loud, of course) she could reassure them that the 'killers' had been dealt with. She had come across some of the more 'understanding' law enforcement types during her travels, but they had mostly limited to small towns, not big cities, and that was usually because they'd come across the odd demon or two themselves. Unless she knew for sure that a cop had prior experience with the supernatural, she tended to stay away from them.

Fernak demons were organ harvester demons like the Gentlemen, only they worked by commission rather than necessity. Their commission, however, was the clincher. The human heart was considered a delicacy, but since they had to be summoned, they could only get that delicacy during a 'job'. She was hoping to get the demon before it got back to whoever summoned them and was returned to whatever hell dimension it came from.

Just as she was starting to lose hope of catching it's trail, Buffy spidey sense pinged just as they stopped at a red light.

"Follow in the car!" Buffy said to Foxx as she jumped out. She jumped onto the curb and frantically looked around, seeing nothing at first before she caught a slight movement up high. Looking up, her eyebrow rose mockingly as the demon she had been searching for hissed at her from where it was attached to the side of the building. With an angry screech, the demon scurried up onto the roof, and Buffy had to rely on her senses to follow it as it began running along the rooftops.

With a curse of surprise at how fast Buffy was suddenly moving, Foxx threw the car into gear, tore into the intersection and hooked a sharp right turn, ignoring the screeching tires and furious honking left in her wake as people slammed on brakes and swerved frantically to avoid hitting each other. Her body began to ready itself for battle even as she tried to keep Buffy in sight with the only illumination being the moon and the streetlights. For the first time since they'd met, Foxx found herself grateful that her new partner was a blonde.

She followed them into an area that looked like the proverbial underbelly of the city. Homeless people were scattered everywhere, some openly staring at the expensive sports car tearing through their territory. Finally Foxx saw them disappear down a narrow underpass. She slammed on brakes and jumped out of the car, reaching into the backseat and grabbing one of the new flashlights. It was so dark down the underpass, that even her enhanced vision couldn't see too far in. She had no idea if Buffy could. Looking around quickly, she motioned to three men staring at her from inside their cardboard homes.

"I've got a hundred bucks each, if you watch my car until I get back." She said.

They quickly scrambled out to join her, only to stop short when she flicked on the flashlight and pulled a gun from her back holster.

"A hundred each," she repeated, "but if you and it are gone, I'll hunt down and kill you all."

Before they could accept or reject the new stipulations, Foxx disappeared down the darkness. Her eyes might have needed assistance, but her ears sure didn't, and she could already hear that Buffy had caught up with her quarry and they were trying very hard to kill each other.

Tracking slowly them by sound, Foxx was forced to use her other senses to avoid obstacles as she waited impatiently for her vision to use the illumination from the flashlight to compensate for the darkness. As soon as it did, she moved much more quickly, until she was brought up short by one of the most vicious fights she'd ever seen. This was _nothing_ like the warehouse. There, Buffy swept through like an angel of death, with an economy of movements meant to kill and keep moving. Now, however, Buffy moved with deadly intent and a feral grace, almost dancing around her increasingly frenetic opponent.

"Stay there, Foxx." Buffy said, not taking her attention off the Fernak. "Me and the child-killer here, have a few issues to work out."

The tone of Buffy's voice had the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. As she watched Buffy twist her body this way and that, avoiding swipe after swipe of sharply hooked claws, she recalled thinking at one point that she could take the smaller blonde if she had to. Now, she realized that the last thing she ever needed was for the Slayer to ever be truly pissed at her. She was _toying_ with the demon that was leaving holes and half-inch deep gouges in the cement that surrounded them.

That wasn't to say that Buffy was getting through the fight unscathed, however. She just seemed to shrug off each blow, ignored every gaping gash, and shake off the concrete dust when she was punched or kicked into one of the walls, as she systematically hammered at the demon, refusing to allow it enough space to make a break for it.

Then, Foxx heard something else. "Shit. Buffy, sirens! We've got to go!"

She heard Buffy growl before the petite blonde kicked it into another gear. She was suddenly moving so fast that she was practically a blur. Then Foxx heard a horrendous _crack_ echo through the darkness, and all movement simply...stopped. Buffy and the Fernak demon were standing, facing each other, for a long moment, then the demon just dropped. First to its knees, its head lolling bonelessly, before falling over to side.

Buffy quickly stuffed the corpse into one of the steel drums a little further into the underpass and murmured a little incantation that she'd picked up on her travels, setting the corpse ablaze until not even ashes were left. They were just getting back to where Foxx had left her car, when the sirens that Foxx had heard approached screamed overhead, instead of towards them as Foxx had feared.

"Let's head back home." Buffy said her companion paid the homeless as she'd promised. "I've still got those calls to make, but first, let's go find something to eat. I'm starving!"

Foxx couldn't help it. She grinned, suddenly feeling right at home.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

They decided to hit a nightclub for some unwinding. Buffy left Foxx at the table nursing a drink while she hit the dance floor. Almost immediately, people were invading her personal space, both men and women. Foxx watched her new partner as she moved fluidly to the pulse-pounding music. Men and women pressed in close, but the Slayer didn't react to anyone unless they actually physically touched her, then she either danced closer or pushed them away, all without loosing the rhythm of her movements.

As she watched the petite blonde, she idly wondered what Buffy would be like in bed. She found herself wondering if the Slayer fucked as hard as she fought. She had slept with Wesley a few times before she'd tried to kill him and, while he had been enthusiastic and surprisingly imaginative, he hadn't had the dominant personality or that killer mentality that added an element of danger to the sex that she sometimes needed to really enjoy herself.

Buffy had it though. No matter how much of the cheerleader personality she maintained, Buffy Summers had the same type of killer instinct that had made those like Cross, Sloan and herself, Fraternity Elite.

Now she wanted to know if the Slayer was just as intense between the sheets, and how much it would take her to find out.

After the club, they found their way to a bistro that was still open and got a few entrées to take back with them, and talked, sharing life experiences, as they ate. Foxx told Buffy about the brand on her neck and life in the Fraternity, and in return, Buffy told her about her multiple vampire marks and about living on the Hellmouth.

Foxx admitted that she was surprised, and a little wary, at how comfortable she felt talking to her, and Buffy told her that both feelings were mutual. She hadn't felt as comfortable with anyone since the early years of her friendship with Willow and Xander.

Finally, Buffy made the call to Faith, while Foxx began the exercise regimen that she used when traveling.

"What's up, B?" Faith answered a little too cheerfully. "Been a minute since the last convo. Whatcha up to?"

Buffy smirked. Faith was only this happy at her phone call when she was bored or tired of being the 'Senior Slayer'. Taking into account what she knew of her counterpart, and what Whistler had told her, it was probably a combination of both.

"We got something big brewing that's going to take the both of us, plus some." Buffy told her. "I'm coming in, and I'm bringing a friend."

"Sweet, I could use some action." Faith responded. "The vamps here are lame as shit, y'know." Then her voice went sly. "What kind of 'friend'? The kind with 'benefits'?"

"Well, I think we're all going to have all the action we can ever want, but I don't want to get into it more than once, so I'm going to hold off the explanations until we get there. And that's none of your business."

Faith laughed. "No prob, B. You flying or driving?"

"Driving. We should be there in a day or so."

"Way you drive, it'd probably be closer to an hour or so." Faith teased. "Does your friend know you're a hazard behind the wheel?"

"_Goodbye_, Faith." Buffy stressed before hanging up on her still laughing friend. "Bitch."

Foxx smiled slightly at the obvious affection in the 'insult'. Buffy had a capacity for forgiveness that she knew she didn't possess. She probably would have killed the so-called 'friends' if they had turned on her during such a crucial time.

Buffy watched the former assassin move fluidly from one form to the next, and knew that she was going to have to find herself some 'company', and soon. Wishing that she'd managed to find someone to work through her hornies with before now, she pushed the needs down as deep as she could, and joined Foxx in her exercises. Of course, being who they were, they ended up sparring, barely managing to avoid breaking anything, and finally tiring themselves out.

"Damn, girl," Foxx said, panting, "now _that_ was a workout."

The next morning, Buffy packed up her stuff quickly into her seemingly bottomless duffel bag. There wasn't much for Foxx to pack, since most of her stuff was still in the bags from the mall. Their first stop was a Radio Shack, to get Foxx a phone so that they could keep in touch since she was driving, and Buffy would be riding her bike. They set up the phones and bought a couple of headsets and stopped at a diner for some breakfast before hitting the road.

"I was kind of hoping to get that baby tweaked." Foxx said as she drank the last of her coffee, looking out at her car.

"Don't worry about it." Buffy told her. "Faith'll take care of you. Apparently, she's got 'the touch' when it comes to engines."

It was the truth. Shortly after Faith had received her portion of their 'back salary', she'd bought herself a garage, something she told Buffy that she'd always wanted. One of the fatherly figure types in her neighborhood in Boston had taught her everything she knew about fixing up anything with an engine. He'd been the closest thing to someone to look up to that Faith'd had when she was young, but then he was killed by a tweeker trying to steal a car that he was fixing up. Not long after that, Faith had run away and soon after that, she had been found by her first watcher.

Even with the constant slaying due to the steadily growing Hellmouth, Faith's garage was actually doing quite well. All of her 'employees' were Slayers, but she also let the younger neighborhood kids, with backgrounds like her own, those looking for a sanctuary from their home lives that didn't involve getting them into trouble, to come by and 'work'. She turned out to be surprisingly responsible when it came to them, demanding that they all went to school and actually attended classes and did homework, or they weren't allowed to make use of the garage. Most were still underage, so they didn't really qualify as 'employees', but they still liked to help out.

In short, she did for them, what that old man did for her. It was the only other thing in her life, other than being one half of the Chosen Two, that she was truly proud of.

While Foxx was paying their bill, Buffy did her own version of 'tweaking' to their phones, bonding their wireless signals so that they could track each other if needed. Like she had done with her own phone and the one she had sent to Faith, she reprogrammed the phone off of its established network, made it operable to any available cell tower, and unlocked all of the phones features. By the time she was finished, the phone was fully unlocked, unlimited, international and completely untraceable.

While Willow was the hacker, and Faith the mechanic, she was the technologist. She hadn't come across a piece of hardware that she couldn't fix or improve on or even rebuild if she could get a look at the schematics. While she had never been formally trained, it was something that she just instinctively excelled at. It was an ability that she had buried beneath her desire for popularity at Hemery, and had not needed as a Slayer. In truth, only Willow and Dawn had really known how good she was at such things. She'd completely redone several of Willow's computers and practically built a portable mp3 player, with nearly all the features of an iPod, from parts that Dawn managed to scavenge.

Soon, they were outside, Foxx in her Viper next to Buffy's bike as the blonde slipped into her leather jacket and helmet. The helmet was also a recent purchase, capable of bluetooth connection to her phone so that she could talk and ride at the same time. It had come in handy during those longer road trip where she spend hours speeding down the highway, talking to Faith or Willow or Dawn, or even just listening to the tracks she had on her memory card.

They were idling at a red light when Buffy heard it. There was banging coming from the back of the car next to her. When the light turned green, she leaned over and kicked the Viper lightly to get Foxx's attention, as she held off crossing the intersection so that she was level with the trunk. A moment later, she heard ringing.

"Answer." She gave the voice command to pick up.

"What's up?" Foxx asked.

"There's something with the car just ahead of me." Buffy answered. "I think there's someone in the trunk. Hold on a sec."

Once Foxx was silent, she focused her hearing, relying on her instincts to keep her from crashing into anything. She blocked out the sound of Foxx's breathing and the surrounding traffic, and concentrated on the car in front of her.

_*Lemme out!*_ She heard faintly amidst the banging. _*I want to go home! Let me out!*_

"Shit, Foxx, I think there's a kid in there!"

"Fuck!" The other woman responded. "What do you want to do? Chasing him through traffic might get us all in an accident."

"We could call the police." Buffy suggested.

"Do we want to take the chance that he'll hurt the kid if he sees cops?"

"Good point." Buffy thought fast, slowing as they came up on another light. "I've got an idea. Get ready to move."

"You got it."

As soon as the car stopped, Buffy pulled her bike around its side and continued up the few inches to bring her level with the driver. Before he could even glance over at her, she suddenly jumped to balance on the seat with one foot as the other lashed out in a vicious kick to his head, knocking him out cold so quickly that it was over before anyone even knew something was happening. She was glad that she was wearing boots, leathers and her helmet as the window basically exploded from the force of her kick. She had pulled it just enough so that it wouldn't kill him, but for someone who would kidnap a child, she really wanted him to hurt. She heard Foxx pull up closer to the back of the car and jump out as she pulled off her helmet and leaned into the shattered window to pull the trunk release lever.

Foxx caught the kid as he jumped out of the trunk as soon as it was sprung. She wrapped her arms around him, barely keeping him from running out into the traffic, and found herself grappling with a hysterical little boy of about six or seven years old, frantically trying to get away.

"Hey, hey, kid, calm down." She said. "You're all right. We're not going to hurt you."

Obviously, he didn't believe her as he kept kicking his feet and swinging his bound hands. Finally, Buffy was there, taking him from the taller woman and wrapping him in a tight embrace.

"Shh," she soothed, "it's okay. You're okay now."

While most adults tended to feel the threat of the Slayer in Buffy, children reacted differently. They tended to gravitate to the sense of safety that she seemed to give off to them, especially when they were already scared. Slowly, the boy calmed and stopped struggling, giving in to the sobs that racked his little body.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

It wasn't until they heard the sirens that Foxx and Buffy thought about the police.

"What now, B?" Foxx asked.

"We're just going have to deal with it." Buffy said, still holding the crying boy. She had climbed into the passenger's seat of the car while Foxx had put down flares so that traffic would go around the vehicles stopped in the middle of the road, including her bike. "Give me your guns so that I can put them in my bag until they're gone. We don't have your conceal carry permits yet. And why are you suddenly calling me that?"

"A killer like you should _not_ be named Buffy." Foxx said as she removed her guns and unfastened her belt and pulled it through the loops until it was through the specially created holsters. She continued when Buffy opened her mouth to protest. "You might not kill people, but you are a killer, girl, and a damn good one. I would have loved to train you for the Fraternity."

She handed her weapons over with her reluctance clear all over her face. It wasn't that she didn't trust the other woman, but Foxx was never comfortable without her weapons within easy reach. Buffy, for her part, understood and accepted the measure of trust that Foxx was giving to her by handing them over without a fight. After all, Foxx had already admitted that she'd only ever completely trusted two people in her entire life after her father was murdered, Cross and Sloan, and look where that had gotten her.

Foxx watched as Buffy carefully placed the guns inside the duffel. In a low tone, she heard the blonde murmur so that the child in her lap didn't hear, "Take good care of them," but what made her blink in surprise was the fact that the bag _responded_, by saying, almost too low for her to hear, "But, of course."

Oh, she _definitely_ had questions for the Slayer now.

They had left the still unconscious kidnapper in his own car, but had bound his hands through the steering wheel with a couple of zipties from Buffy' bounty hunting gear.

"What's your name?" Buffy asked gently as she was leaning around him.

"J-Jeremy." He sniffled.

"Hi, Jeremy, my name is Buffy, and that is my partner, Foxx." She introduced. "Can you tell me how old you are?"

"Six and a half." He answered, calming further as she spoke softly to him. "My birthday is in Aug-aug..."

"August?" Buffy smiled.

"Yeah, that's it, Augus'."

"Jeremy, do you know your address or your telephone number so we can take you home to your mom and dad?"

He teared up again. "My mommy had to go to Heaven." He told her. "The mean man made me talk to my daddy, and I asked my daddy to come and get me because I didn't like the mean man, but then he snatched the phone away and yelled at my daddy and when I told him to stop yelling at my daddy, he hit me and..."

"Shh, it's okay now, Jeremy." Buffy soothed as he began to get worked up again. "The mean man is never going to hurt you again.

She looked up as a couple of police cars pulled up on both sides. The one on the driver's side moved further up until it was directly behind her motorcycle. By the time officers climbed out of both sides of both vehicles, Foxx was rifling through one of the grocery bags, searching for a snack for the kid, when one of the officers rudely stuck his head in the window next to Buffy's head. Buffy stiffened, barely managing to refrain from elbowing him in the forehead for the sudden invasion of her personal space, while little Jeremy whimpered and shrank back further into her embrace.

"Hey, genius," Foxx drawled from the back seat, "the kid was just rescued from a man that kidnapped him, yelled at his dad and probably slapped him around. Do you really think he wants you so close up in his face?"

Startled, the young officer backed up with a bashful look on his face before saying, "Um, can everyone please step out of the vehicle?"

Jeremy clung tightly to Buffy as she slid them out of the car, Foxx following closely behind. She stood nearly back to back with her partner. She had never been comfortable around cops, and instinct told her that Buffy was no different. In an effort to relax a little, she leaned back against her car as the young officer took Buffy's statement under the supervision of his partner, a slightly older woman that was more into checking out Foxx, than paying attention to her charge.

"Are you saying that you just happened to hear the young boy yelling from the trunk?"

"Yep." Buffy said, popping the 'p' like she had bubble gum in her mouth. Foxx rolled her eyes.

"And you just kicked in the window to knock the man out?"

"Yep." Buffy repeated.

"Why didn't you call the police?"

"You do realize that this road heads straight for the highway, right?" Buffy's brow rose in question. "By the time the police got to us, we'd have all mostly likely been across state lines. I knew what I was doing. I knew how much force to put in the kick to both break the window and render my target unconscious."

"And how did you know that?" The female officer finally spoke up.

"I'm a bounty hunter, and I go after some pretty serious bounties." Buffy shrugged. "This isn't the first time I've done it."

"So you have no idea who the boy is?"

This time it was Foxx that answered. "Should we?"

The woman ignored Foxx's obvious question as they went over Buffy's statement over and over before she tried to take Jeremy from the petite blonde. The boy latched onto Buffy like a limpet, refusing to let go, and even going so far as to kick out at both officers. By now, an ambulance, called by one of the other officers for the still unconscious kidnapper, had arrived and they had cut the ziptie binding his wrists through the steering wheel. Not being able to separate the child from the Slayer, the two officers politely, if a little reluctantly, asked if Buffy would be willing to come with them to the station, and stay until his father could be contacted.

"What about meeting up with the others?" Foxx asked, careful not to mention any names.

"They'll hold for another day." Buffy answered, being equally careful. "It shouldn't take longer than that to get this little man back to his dad. Should it?"

The last was asked in such an authoritative tone, that the officers barely managed to refrain from shaking their heads in automatic agreement.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

They were at the police station for over an hour before the door burst open and a man rushed in, yelling frantically.

"Where's my son?" He shouted. "Jeremy! They told me he was here! Where is he? Jeremy!"

"Daddy!" Jeremy screamed, scrambling off of Buffy's lap.

The man's head snapped around so fast, Foxx wondered if he had whiplash. Weaving through the desks, and practically plowing down anyone in his way, the man met his son halfway and scooped the boy up into a fierce hug.

Foxx had settled back in her chair, waiting for Buffy, who had gone to say goodbye to the kid, when suddenly all hell broke loose.

She instinctively reached for her guns, before remembering that she had put them in Buffy's magic bag when the cops first showed up. Cursing to herself, she quickly took in the situation.

Some biker had taken advantage of the commotion of the father/son reunion to wrench himself away from his escorts, probably bounty hunters like Buffy, and grab one of their weapons. Before anyone could do more than yell in alarm, he had grabbed a man that had been coming in behind the anxious father by the collar, and was holding the gun to his head.

_Why the hell did they have him cuffed in the front?_ Foxx wondered in contempt, _God damned amateurs._

Guns were quickly drawn and turned towards the man, but he had already put his back to a wall so that his hostage was between him and the threat.

"Back the fuck off, motherfuckers!" He yelled. "Get your ass in here, bitch! I saw you out there!"

After a moment, a female cop sidestepped into the room, her weapon also trained in his direction.

"All right, everybody calm down." Said a man that Foxx realized was probably the police captain. "I'm sure that we can work something out."

There was something in his voice that caught Foxx's attention. Looking closer at the man, she realized that his attention was focused more on the hostage than on the guy with the gun. Was he someone important?

"I want the fuck outta here," The biker demanded, "but first, gimme some keys to these fucking cuffs."

"All right, all right," the man in charge said, nodding to one of his officers, who holstered his weapons in exchange for his handcuff keys.

"I don't fucking think so, pig." The biker snarled when the man started toward him, before leering at Buffy. "I want that hot little blonde to do it."

Buffy looked at the man in contempt and crossed her arms over her chest. "Not until you let the boy and his dad go up there to my partner."

"You fucking jokin', bitch?" He gaped incredulously at her. "I will kill this motherfucker. You get your little ass over here and unlock me, or your gonna be wearing his brains for makeup."

Buffy shrugged uncaringly. "So? I don't know him. I don't care about him, and I'm not doing a damn thing until Jeremy is up there with my partner."

The biker looked like he wanted to argue, but then decided it wasn't important enough. "Fine, what the fuck do I care?"

Buffy nodded, then turned her attention to the little boy that was watching everything with wide, scared eyes. "Jeremy, take your dad upstairs and stay with Foxx."

"What about Uncle JJ?" He asked in a trembling whisper as his father carried him past her.

"I'll take care of your Uncle JJ." Buffy assured him quietly, her eyes narrowed on the biker. "We'll see you up there in a few minutes."

As soon as Jeremy and his father were with Foxx, Buffy held her hand out to the officer for the key. With slow, deliberate steps, she approached the biker and his hostage, suppressing the Slayer within so that she didn't make the already jittery biker even more agitated. So she locked down the predator inside of her so that only the cool professional bounty hunter showed in her eyes.

"Look," she said quietly as she unlocked the cuffs on his wrists, "I know that you're too smart to take one of the cops, but why don't you let me be the hostage instead. That little boy was just rescued from a kidnapper, or maybe even something worse, and he'd really like his uncle up there with him."

While she didn't know for sure, if there was any chance that this guy had kids of his own, or even nieces and nephews, that appeal would be the most likely to work.

"I can make the switch quick and easy." She continued. "You won't be exposed to the guns behind me in any way."

"Oh, yeah," the biker asked, obviously interested as his eyes raked down her golden skin, "how you gonna do that?"

"A quick twist of the hips, and me and him are swapped." She finally looked him in the eyes, a hard glint in hers and her lip curled in a sad smile. "My sister was kidnapped once, right after my mom died, and when we got her back, all she wanted was me and my mom. I couldn't give that to her, but you can help me give that to him."

It would have taken a heart colder than his to resist the plea in her voice, and he nodded curtly, not even making a verbal response. Buffy nodded back and wrapped her hands in Uncle JJ's shirt. "On the count of three?"

"One..." The biker started. "Two..." He let go of the back of the man's collar.

"Three!" Buffy finished, yanking the two of them around quickly so that they were in each other's place before the police even realized what was about to happen.

The biker took advantage of the moment of shocked paralysis and wrapped a newly freed arm around Buffy's shoulder, pulling her closer to his body, before shouts and curses blistered the air.

"Shut the fuck up!" He yelled. Everyone quieted. "Now, I'm taking the barbie here, and we're getting the fuck gone, and if even one of you pigs follows, I'm blowing her brains all over the wall." As he moved towards the door, he put his mouth to her ear. "Then me and you can have some real fun, y'know."

He ground his lower body against her ass to show her what he meant, but kept them moving. With shouts and threats, he made the officers hiding in the hallway, reveal themselves, and enter the room as they exited. He made them close the double doors and was ready to pull his hostage down the hall to the elevators when she suddenly stopped cooperating.

"All right, now that they're out of the way…" Buffy snarled coldly as she reached up and grabbed both of his wrists before he could react. She twisted the wrist of the hand holding the gun away from her head, so that his instinctive pulling of the trigger sent the bullet into the wall instead of into her head, and breaking it with an audible _snap_. She ducked under the arm that she pulled from her shoulder, twisting in an impressive display of dexterity, leaving their arms crossed opposite of each other and their positions were reversed, much like what she'd done with Uncle JJ. She released her iron control just enough for him to realize that he'd bitten off more than he could chew with her, then, with a grim smirk, she planted her foot in his chest, careful to pull the force of the blow so that she didn't kill him, and sent him flying back through the doors that had just been closed.

Ever since leaving Sunnydale, she had discovered that she had a lot less tolerance for the people that she so often had to save. In some cases, they were worse than demons. She knew that she had hurt the biker pretty badly. Besides the broken wrist, she had clearly heard the crack of bone where her foot had connected with his chest. He wouldn't die, but he sure as well wouldn't be doing anything for a long time.


End file.
